Samjong KPMG revamps online M&A platform to close information gap

Samjong KPMG announced Tuesday it has fully revamped its Samjong KPMG M&A Center Online platform to help owners of small and mid-sized companies and M&A practitioners more easily and transparently access deal information and explore transaction opportunities.

The overhaul aims to reduce information asymmetry and allow business owners to evaluate mergers and acquisitions more systematically. The renewal centers on three priorities: expanding access to M&A information, providing real transaction opportunities, and disclosing transparent information about advisory professionals.

A newly added "Understanding M&A" section organizes key topics — sale procedures, corporate valuation, deal structures and major considerations — in accessible language, focusing on questions that business owners and practitioners commonly encounter during actual transactions. The section is designed so that companies without concrete sale plans can still work through M&A concepts and key decision points step by step.

The "Exploring M&A Opportunities" section breaks down deal types into sales, investment fundraising and real estate sales, and introduces a new "acquisition demand" feature drawing on the M&A Center's investor network. Users can view not only companies seeking buyers but also the acquisition interests of investors targeting specific industries or business segments, allowing companies to identify real market opportunities relevant to their own operations.

A new "Meet the Experts" page discloses the specializations and key track records of partners who handle M&A advisory work, letting prospective clients assess an adviser's experience and capabilities before engaging. The platform also clearly presents, at the individual profile level, that the same partner oversees an engagement from the initial advisory stage through deal closing — a structure intended to ease owner concerns about personnel changes and improve transparency throughout the advisory process.

The platform also provides M&A market trend insights combining expert analysis with AI, drawing on Samjong KPMG's regularly published industry reports and accumulated deal data. Industry market trends and transaction flows are presented at a glance, giving business owners and M&A practitioners a resource for tracking market shifts and building deal strategies.

The Samjong KPMG M&A Center Online is an online extension of the advisory experience that Samjong KPMG's financial advisory division has built up in the field. The firm has accumulated M&A advisory experience across a wide range of industries — including semiconductors, healthcare and consumer goods — and company sizes within the small and mid-sized enterprise segment.

The platform particularly supports owner exits where controlling-stake sales are being considered for reasons such as inheritance planning, succession and retirement. Demand for corporate succession through M&A is also growing in tandem with the aging of small-business management. According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the share of CEOs aged 60 or older at small manufacturing enterprises more than doubled, rising from 14.1 percent in 2012 to 33.5 percent in 2022.

Samjong KPMG has also provided M&A advisory services at various stages of corporate growth — including helping mid-sized companies such as Futronic and Juno Hair pursuing global expansion build strategic partnerships with global private equity funds.

Through the revamp, companies can browse M&A-related content and market information without commitment even before forming concrete sale plans, and can explore a wide range of deal needs — from controlling-stake sales and acquisitions to startup fundraising and real estate transactions — in one place. Users can also review the specializations and track records of the partners who will handle their advisory work in advance, enabling a more transparent search for the right expert for their situation.

Samjong KPMG said it plans to continuously expand decision-stage content for companies considering M&A and to enhance its AI-based market insight service. The firm also intends to link its existing offline touchpoints — such as seminars targeting strong regional small and medium-sized enterprises — with the online platform, broadening M&A information access for companies outside major cities on a nationwide basis.

"This revamp focused on giving owners who are considering M&A a single place to check the information they need before making a decision, along with market acquisition demand and the experience of advisory professionals," said Won Jeong-jun, head of the Samjong KPMG M&A Center. "The online platform can play a role in developing M&A into a market where business owners can review a range of options based on sufficient information, rather than having deals discussed only within the networks of a select few specialists."